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Tuesday, 15 May 2018

Discovering happiness amid uncertainty and finding a love that transcends the boundary between life and death.

Seventeen year old Alex Byrd is about to have the worst day of her life, and the best. A routine blood test that will reveal her leukaemia has returned, but she also meets Jamie Orange.

Both teenagers have big dreams, but also big obstacles to overcome.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

I have never been as moved by a novel as I
have with this teenage romance caught between the struggles of reality. Catch Me When You Fall follows the story
of a sixteen-year-old girl called Alex Byrd who lives in Christchurch with her
parents and younger sister. After a brief doctors appointment where she bonds
over a mutually loved book with a boy of her age, Jamie Orange, she soon finds
out that her leukaemia has returned and she may not survive this time around.
Throughout the course of the novel, Alex finds solace in her newfound love and
passion for the arts with Jamie and comes to realise that Jamie has many issues
of his own, despite him appearing angelic in appearance with a personality that
continues to sway her deeply as a typical first love does.

Some people believe in love at first sight, and some don't.I believe in love in four days.I believe in falling.

The title Catch Me When You Fall seems to imply the act of falling in love
and expecting another to return the feeling in full. I definitely felt that
this novel lived up to the expectation that came with this statement; its
storyline has captured teenage love with absolute precision and also managed to
convey the same message with the idea of succumbing to the sicknesses they
suffer from.

Since I have not personally suffered with a
sickness as dire as cancer, reading about a girl who has gone through it not
once but three times, has been an experience that I will never forget. Both
Alex and Jamie kick off their bonding session over a book called 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. This love for
books grows into a connection over music they relate to which seems to give the
book more life and beauty as the reader can search up the song and listen to it
during the scene that is playing out. I found myself rooting for Alex to survive,
despite the terrifying odds, and relating more-or-less to Jamie with his
bipolar disorder, as it is one of the two major categories of manic depression.

Merriman has done an extraordinary job of
creating a realistic world of love and suffering, where two teenagers connect
and clash over trivial matters which overall brings them closer together over
the course of the novel. Basing their story in Christchurch, New Zealand helped
me related to Alex as a young teenager going through her first relationship and
learning to juggle her personal life with someone else who is going through a
different kind of sickness. In Alex’s mind it is harder for her to understand
why Jamie claims to struggle so much with his mental illness when she feels she
is closer to the brink of possible death.

I said, 'I wish this moment could be forever.''We are forever.' Jamie raised his head, and kissed me on the lips. 'Neither alive nor dead.'

Merriman has created a perfectly realistic
and relatable story that many New Zealand teenagers, and possibly others
overseas, can feel emotionally moved by Alex and Jamie’s relationship going
through the ringer and back. Much of the factual content had been researched by
the author’s connections and written with some of her own knowledge as a nurse.
Her writing is beautifully simplistic along with the use of the Norwegian
language through Jamie’s family, which adds diversity that Eileen has been
known for from her debut novel, Pieces of
You.

I
would recommend this to anyone above the age of thirteen that has experienced
the trials of a first love, and anyone who is just looking to find something that
can re-invent it perfectly in a 300-page novel. It has been one of the most
eye-opening stories I’ve come across throughout my time as an avid reader and I
am positive that this will open the doorway for many more writers who feel like
they have powerful stories of their own to tell. I've given this novel a 4.5 stars out of 5!

What are some of your favourite novels that deal with life-threatening illnesses or mental health issues? Are there any other New Zealand based novels that you can recommend? Let me know in the comments below!

Check out my Spotify playlist for

Catch Me When You Fall

* A few of these songs are actually mentioned in the book, others I have curated for the playlist on my own accord. I hope you enjoy it!

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The Booklanders143 members*Updated group info*
This bookclub will meet every 6-9 weeks. Each meeting will consist of a discussion of the last book we read, a quiz or game related to the book, and a quick vote of what our next book should be (I will put a poll on this group page, though, so everyone gets a vote!)
There will be spot prizes at every meeting. Things like Whitcoulls gift cards, signed books, regular books, bookmarks, subscription boxes, etc!
This book club will be mostly YA, but remember, YA is a point of view, not an age range c:

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